As more information about workplace abrasive behaviors and bullying flood the popular consciousness, more companies are creating zero-tolerance policies and are refusing to tolerate abrasive or bullying behaviors. It is imperative that you be aware of what might trigger your inner bully and what you can do to avoid behaving like a bullying and the complaints, investigations, and consequences of being accused of workplace bullying.

Three Stressors

1. Lack of Confidence

Do you feel threatened by new challenges, or difficult assignments?

2. Lack of Leadership Skills

Do you feel you communicate with colleagues but they don’t understand what you asking for and cannot meet your expectations?

3.Lack of Trust in Others

Do you believe your colleagues will take advantage of any situation so they can avoid work?

If you answered yes to even ONE of these questions, then you are living with a key bullying behavior stressor.

These stressors leads to feelings of powerlessness, frustration, insecurity, and fearfulness and that can trigger the defensiveness and aggression of bullying behaviors.

Six Remedies

Talk with someone knowledgeable about stress and frustration to help you gain a new perspective on your situation

Apologize to people you think you’ve been hurting to help you focus on the future instead of the past

Seek feedback from your colleagues about your behavior-how they see you now, when you were at your best, what triggers your aggression, and what they think you can do to improve your situation

Take a leadership course to develop new motivational skills

Study communication best practices to improve your effectiveness

Assess your assumptions about how people work and challenge any that might trigger bullying behaviors

Kathleen is dedicated to the empowerment of women and men facing workplace and interpersonal communication conflicts including dysfunctional teams, abrasive managers and bullying. As such, she empowers her clients to create and put into action specific paths that end conflicts and transform relationships.
Kathleen's shrewd and compassionate approach is based upon her research, expertise and hard won experience. Her experience includes 1) Handling thousands of cases involving interpersonal and team conflicts at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); University of Southern California (USC); and California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and, 2) A decade of private practice working with executives, entrepreneurs, business professionals and academics.